Painted door handles, removal and installation
 

This was my most dreaded mod, but it turns out it was the easiest!! (besides the s2k antenna:thumbup:)

Step one: Open the door, on the lip behind the door handle there are 2 quarter sized rubber plugs. pull them off and behind them you'll see the 2 mounting screws for the handle.
Step two: I used a 10mm ratchet to crack the 2 screws loose then a MAGNETIZED #3 Phillips screwdriver to take them the rest of the way. Make sure not to drop the screws into the door, or that will be the start of a very bad day.
Step three: The drivers door has the lock cylinder, so you'll have to remove the screw holding the cylinder to the door handle and release the control arm.

Then your handles are out!!

Paint them, drink beer, wait for paint to dry while drinking more beer! :icon38:

Installation is fairly straightforward, but the key is to make sure the handle opening rod engages the blue plastic cup inside the door. You get this misaligned and the handle won't open...

Top thing here is to not drop the screw into the door, and don't scratch anything. Just be careful and this goes over in a snap! Here's the pics!

More pics...

Also if you do this and break something, it's your fault. Not mine! :thumbup:

GOOD LUCK!

did you spraypaint them? looks good btw

looks decent, but they need to be sanded to make them smooth

Awesome. Thought it would be harder.

2 cents....it kind of looks like it clashes with the b pillar being black. Maybe paint the B pillar as well?

suicide doors :O

niice, looks like you did a good job on those. Is that your 370z?

I did rattle can them, its the duplicolor charcoal wheel paint. The same as my wheels. I used it because of its resistance to scratching. The B pillars are carbon, and the resin is pretty cloudy grey so it matches the handles in certain light. The 370 is my roommates, now he wants me to do his as well! The handles are a bit rough because of the metallic in the paint but will smooth out after a good washing. Its supposed to rain here for the next 3 days, no sense in washing it today. Thanks for the input, I'm really happy about how easy this was to do.

If you're referring to the black coupe body in the garage we call them "see-more" doors cuz you get a good show when the ladies get out! :thumbup:

Hot rods are my other vice, that one is a 33 Plymouth 5 window coupe. I'm building the chassis right now, should be a runner by summertime.

Nice work.

How did you spray inside the door handle? Is there any silver showing? Nice DIY!!

The paint shoots really good so getting inside the handle was easy. There's about 7 coats on the handles so the insides got coated well!

Thanks again for the good jobs, I really appreciate it!

I just did this yesterday also! To mask off the mechanism, I found that a vinyl glove works perfect... Put the push rod down into the index finger of the glove, then take the wrist and pull it up around the bulk of the mechanism, add a little blue painter's tape to seal it up and hold it in place, and away you go!

Did you have to clamp them open and then paint? How did they get coated underneath the handle is what Im asking.. :confused:

I see what you're saying. No I didn't clamp them open, just while painting the back of the handle I made sure to coat the insides of the handles. I'm sure that when the handle is open, there may be a tiny unpainted spot, but I didn't see any.

I'm scared to do mine...but I need to.

hey thanks for the write up! I unscrewed my passenger side door handle (just the 2 screws) but it wont budge.. do I have to do anything else to get them out??

Wiggle it! They come out.

any more pics of the ratrod in the garage?

So that DIY for getting the dropped bolt out of the door ... :icon22:

Yes, I feel like an idiot. The screwdriver was magnetized. I guess the bolt was heavier than the screwdriver was able to hold.